The Timeless Legacy of an Untimely Man

How often has one person affected humanity to such a degree that were the fruits of his labor withdrawn immediately from our day-to-day existence, the world as we know it … would essentially stop?

A True Story

This story is about one such real-life person. And, we will interview the pre-eminent world authority on this person, Marc J. Seifer, who wrote his biography. Marc’s book has been highly praised by such diverse sources as the New York Times, M.I.T and the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.

Timely Timeless Question … for You

At the end of this story is a question, both timeless and timely … for you.

Not Since

Leonardo da Vinci has a person’s mind spawned such a plethora of humanity-elevating ideas. You could take away da Vinci, and the world would be lessened by the loss of art, brilliance of character and thought, and would go on – but not this person.

In Your Mind

For a moment, we’ll take this wizard, this real-life person’s contributions to humanity away and…

Everything Stops

Lights would go off around the world. Trains halt. Planes would fall from the sky.

Industries driven by motors?

Silence

Cell phones? Dead.

TV?

Dark.

Cars? Unable to start.

Computers? Not without him.

Radio?

He was the “Father of Radio.” Ahh… you say, I know who that is.

Marconi!

Wrong.

But Marconi did use many of his patents, and historically speaking, was a much better businessman. So much so that history books credit Marconi with inventing radio.

Wrong History Righted

The United States Supreme Court righted the wrong in 1943. But it was too late for this person, this wizardly inventor … he had just died.

What about flourescent lights, neon lights, fax machines? Gone too. He was mucking around with them in the early 1890’s.

STOP!

STEVE! You just screwed up. You made a typo. 1890’s?

No I didn’t.

This person was demonstrating wireless electricity and lights at the World’s Fair in 1893.

LIES!

Would a picture help?

X-Rays? You thought Roentgen? Not really. Not without him.

Wireless communications, wireless transmission of power?

Not without him.

HAVE YOU FIGURED OUT WHO THIS PERSON IS YET?

No? Hmm …

Well you could try the history books.

A Great Disservice

Sorry.

He’s not there. He’s been removed. A great disservice to humanity, history and truth.

I’ll give you a hint.

Once Upon a Time …

He was on the cover of Time Magazine on July 20,1931.

Still struggling?

Yes … I did too.

Let me give you some more of his inventions. Robotics? Particle-beam Weapons?

The original inventor of “STAR WARS” weapons?

NO WAY!

Not one person. Surely not one person could bring to this earth such a diverse array of inventions over a single life span … let alone history be silent about him.

Hard to believe, but true. There’s more.

More?

Remote control, e.g., garage-door opener, remote-control toys, ozone-producing machines, bladeless turbines and pumps, reactive jet dirigible (precursor to Harrier jet), Hovercraft Flivver plane (precursor to Osprey helicopter/aircraft).

Surely we have crossed the boundary from science fiction into fantasy, right?

Wrong.

We have crossed the boundary back from the systematic removal of the world’s greatest genius from the history books.

Good Business Sense Is Always Good Business Sense

And believe it or not, it was mainly because he wasn’t a good businessman. He was altruistic – preferring to try to better humanity’s lot and improve living conditions for all human beings.

Oil Barons Be Gone!

He created a distribution system that could deliver wireless energy anywhere on the globe. Once his financial backers learned the inventors’ true intentions, and that there was no way to meter and charge for this energy, they withdrew financial support.

This crushed him.

It drove him out of town, and in time, history. To that end, he was destroyed, and all have suffered since. What I mention above are just some of the remains of his contributions. He failed to patent a lot of his ideas, and he wound up simply giving them away – like the telephone speaker.

That Person’s Name?

Who counted as friends and confidants such luminaries as Mark Twain, George Westinghouse, John Jacob Astor, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and J.P. Morgan,

INTRO: Marc Seifer, Author of …

“Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla”

“The story of one of the most prolific, independent and iconoclastic inventors of this century is a fascinating one.”- Scientific American

“Despite Tesla’s impact on electricity, history does not regard him as highly as many of his inventive contemporaries. … As Seifer shows in great detail … Tesla’s story is complicated and tests our definition of science. … Where does someone like Tesla fit in?”

- M.I.T. Technology Review

Steve: What are some of Tesla’s most notable inventions?

Marc Seifer (Marc): Where do I begin? How about …

1. The induction motor
2. The rotating magnetic field (precursor to gyroscope)
3. The AC polyphase system: electric power transmission
4. Inventor of efficient hydroelectric station – renewable clean energy
5. Arc lighting
6. Fluorescent and neon lights
7. Laser beams
8. X-rays
9. Dematerialization devices
10. Radio tube and precursor to TV tube, also precursor to fax machine
11. Tesla coil
12. Oscillators
13. Selective tuning
14. Encryption technology and scrambler
15. Electric railroad (subway)
16. Wireless communication
17. Wireless power transmission
18. Framework for sending voice and pictures by means of wireless
19. Stealth technology (radar jamming)
20. Radio guidance technology
21. Cell phone technology
22. Artificial intelligence
23. Remote control, e.g., garage-door opener, remote-control toys
24. Robotics
25. Telautomaton (incorporated above: remote control robotics)
26. Radar
27. Telegeodynamics (a way to search for metals and minerals)
28. Tachometer and speedometer
29. Earthquake machine
30. Weather modification (part of Wardenclyffe)
31. Harnessing solar power, geothermal and tides
32. Electrotherapeutics – use of high-frequency phenomena to promote healing
33. Electric bath
34. Machine that stimulates laxative effect*(remember this one)
35. Fertilizer machine abstracts nitrogen from the environment
36. Refrigeration machines
37. Ozone-producing machines
38. Bladeless turbines and pumps
39. Reactive jet dirigible – (precursor to Harrier jet)
40. Hovercraft
41. Flivver plane (precursor to Osprey helicopter/aircraft)
42. Particle-beam weapons (precursor to Starwars)

Steve: How many of his notable inventions are typically credited to others?

Marc: A number of these inventions are often wrongly credited to others. Tom Edison may have invented the first workable electric light, but without Tesla’s invention of AC electrical transmission, these light bulbs and corresponding lighting systems would have remained highly inefficient.

So the concept of transmitting electricity for lighting and power for long distances is often wrongly credited to Tom Edison and Elihu Thomson of the Thomson Houston company, (later GE), when in fact the system was invented by Tesla and moved into the market by George Westinghouse.

Perfectly Imperfect

Steve: The perfect partnership of Westinghouse and Tesla later turned imperfect and financially devastated Tesla. He agreed to waive $2.50 per-watt royalties as contractually agreed to by Westinghouse in order to get his AC system to the market. He knew it would immeasurably and beneficially change the world forever. Tesla felt no one else could, or would, do it successfully. His good faith gesture eventually cost him $billions (with a “b”) of dollars.

Marc: Yes.

E=MC2 … Albert Who?

The idea of harnessing alternating current efficiently is Tesla’s creation, but it is sometimes wrongly attributed to Charles Steinmetz, a brilliant mathematician who worked for General Electric. Steinmetz wrote two key textbooks on the AC polyphase system but neglected to put Tesla’s name in these books. This would be equivalent to writing books on the Theory of Relativity and forgetting to mention the name of Einstein!

The radio is often wrongly attributed to Marconi.

Predates Predates

Marconi was the first inventor to send a Morse-coded signal across the Atlantic. This invention, however, is missing most of the key components to what later became the radio. Marconi was using Hertz’ spark gap method to create the impulses. To send complex forms of information such as voice, pictures and wireless power, (which led to the radio, TV and cell phone) one needs continuous frequencies. These are actually Tesla currents. Tesla’s work predates Marconi by about four years and makes very clear that one needs continuous waves, resonant frequencies, transmitting equipment, a ground connection and a receiver.

When an engineer named Otis Pond, who was working for Tesla mentioned, “Looks as if Marconi got the jump on you” regarding Marconi’s radio system, Tesla answered.

“Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is using seventeen of my patents.”

Wireless Circa 1901 (Patented Anyway)

Tesla was also the first to display a remote controlled robot, which he called the “teleautomaton,” which was a boat that responded to his wireless signals.

This was in 1898 in Madison Square Garden. The invention responded to a combination of frequencies and laid the groundwork for such devices as the garage-door opener, the TV remote, radio guidance systems and cell-phone technology. By creating, sending and receiving equipment that could respond to combined frequencies, Tesla was able to create an unlimited number of wireless channels, and that was as far back as 1901 when he got that patent.

Steve: When/where did Tesla first exhibit wireless/fluorescent lights etc. to the public?

Marc: Tesla first exhibited wireless devices at a major conference at Columbia University in May of 1891. Present were many engineers such as Professor Michael Pupin, physics professor at Columbia University; Elihu Thomson, later head of GE; Robert Millik